Picasso

1961 · Best.-Nr. 7309 — New York: George Braziller 1961. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. First edition in English first printing published simultaneously with the French edition. Translated from the French by Patrick Gregory. Oblong folio. 153 pp. With over a hundred full-page illustrations by Picasso including four lithographs one of which is in twenty-four colors designed especially for this publication and printed by Mourlot Frères. Publisher's pictorial red cloth. Corners a bit bumped. Small bookplate to corner of upper flyleaf. Dust jacket with some rubbing to corners and edges. A Near Fine copy in like dust jacket. Toreros reproduces Picasso's illustrations of Spanish bullfighters adding four original lithograph designs created by Picasso for the publication: "La Pique" "Le Picador II" "Jeu de la Cape" and "Les Banderilles." The illustrations are accompanied by commentary by Jaime Sabartés 1881 - 1968 an artist writer and lifelong friend of Picasso: "The friendship of Picasso and Sabartés in recent years the artist's secretary goes back more than sixty years to their youth in Barcelona" The Artist and the Book 240. "All true 'aficionados' are drawn to the bull-ring by the same irrepressible enthusiasm. Each of them is prey to the same desire the same passion: to see his torero 'torear' his one and only 'diestro' the matador of his predilection the being who commands his fervent admiration - often for reasons quite unknown to the aficionado himself. Perhaps it is the matador's elegance his boldness or his courage; perhaps it is his skill with the cape or the 'muleta'." p. 1. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. George Braziller unknown books